49ers Vs. Ravens Recap: Excuses, Excuses, Excuses

at how bad the pass protection was with Rachal and Norris in the line up. Last night I was upset at the lack of slants and screens to take advantage of all the Raven pressure but watching the clips again, it’s not like the Ravens were going blitz crazy every play. They were getting 2 or 3 guys in the backfield just by rushing 3 or 4.

The Ravens seemed to be playing with more energy. They really took that game seriously. They were kicking our offensive line’s behinds. I was disappointed we didn’t use the running game more.

As far as excuses go… No I don’t see how there are any excuses. We all knew the Ravens were going to be our toughest matchup. I bet we win that game if it was in San Francisco. Too good of a team to go in and expect to beat them without playing above you’re level. We have to play better than normal on offense to beat the Ravens. Their defense is too good.

the PI call on TB was BS.

-Outplayed on both lines ( Snyder injured, Alex took some coverage “sacks” when he should have thrown it away, what was up with the complete lack of pressure from 49ers defensive line? )

-Corners played the bend-don’t-break defense and the Ravens took complete advantage, lots of short passes to convert 3rd downs

-Ticky tack foul took away the 49ers only big offensive play of the game

-Slightly too much arm tangle ( I have less of a problem with the PI than most ) took away their only big defensive play of the game.

-Bad chemistry between Smith and Edwards likely took away 3 points, much like last years Smith/Crabtree eff ups.

-It seems that defenses have mostly figured out the mix and match run game the 49ers were able to effectively use for 4 or 5 weeks there, last 3 games now it’s been shut down pretty well. They’ve been trying to open up the offense in advance, but it really hit a wall in this game, they couldn’t produce the protection for opening it up and the run game was completely shut down.

-The Ravens have the best defense in the league when they care. 49ers are in a mix for 2nd. They won’t face another D like them unless it’s a rematch in the super bowl, but the short-comings of being able to beat blitzes and isolate match ups is a problem they must over come in general, regardless of opponent. I’m sure everyone watched much of the Packer/Lions game. The Lions could not finish drives in the first half, cost them the game.

-I don’t know how much the short week really affected the team. We all know much of their improvement this year was scheming. So, taking away a couple days of scheming, and playing a team that is probably more familiar with them than any non divisional team. It certainly looked like the 49ers were pinned down for 4 quarters in all the ways that scheming matters.

-Snyder’s injury both reflects how much the 49ers can not withstand injuries, and how lucky they’ve been to be healthy. Hopefully the 49ers can get ahead in some of these games down the stretch and not lose any body. Even Miller being out felt big. Miller adds an extra dynamic to get out of the backfield and make a play.

-As much as Edwards crap is frustrating at this point, i think he has to be a part of the offense. Whatever is wrong there, the 49ers need to fix it, if he needs to be rested, rest him, if he needs more snaps in the offense, then he and Alex need to get together and get it figured out. They need him to play and to play well.

-Aldon needs a bull rush move if he wants to take it up to the next level, he’s getting the tackles back on their heels, but he’s always just trying to disengage and it plays right into their hands most of the time. The best rushers make them pay for that with a swift punch that knocks them backward and destroys the pocket.

For 45 minutes against the cardinals, and only 3 days of rest….2nd I didn’t post my GO NINERS!!!! in the original game thread which I’ve done all season since dallas

Those 2 calls were a 10 point swing in a tightly contested game. And how much did we end up losing by? 10! So its a worthy argument. In the end we did get out played but we didn’t get SO outplayed that those two calls don’t bother me anymore. I’ll think about those calls for while. Looking at the numbers more it irritates even more. If those two calls don’t get called like they should the turnovers are 1 – 1 instead of 1 – 0. Total yardage is 270 to 253 Niners. The score at that point of the game would have been 13 – 3 instead of 3 – 3. Those 2 calls changed the whole complexity of the game. I bet we would have won if those are different. I know your supposed to find a way to win and that is true. But this is the fan side of me talking not my competitive side so I can be a little more subjective. What also really irritates me is the national media are going jump up and yell “see the Niners are frauds! See we told you so!” and its such BS. And we’ll also get the whole Alex can’t win the big game BS too. Our team went 3 time zones to one of the toughest places to play on a short win lose a game that we should have won except for these two bad calls and now Alex can’t win and the niners are frauds. ARG RABBLE. Sorry I just had to get that off my chest. I’ll get off the soap box now. haha

Their stink permeated my television and screwed up our game.

Brown had Torrey Smith’s arm because he was going for the ball and Smith was pushing that arm into Brown’s body to try to keep him from making a play on the ball.

But the offense does not have special privileges when the ball is in the air. No player may act to prevent another player from making a play on the ball.

Brown was making a play on the ball. Torrey Smith was making a play on Brown — unless he intended to catch that ball with the back of his right hand.

That is a borderline pass interference call — but on Torrey Smith, not Brown.

John asked his brother to lose this game so that they win their division. The 49ers will win their division and will get a 1st round bye (2nd seed) and the ravens want the same. [/Snark]

-Steeler fan

- Refs made 2 REALLY BAD CALLS that cost us 10 points (took 7 from us and gave them 3).

- The Alex Smith Int in the end zone at the end of the half cost us 3 points. I felt we should have gotten a bit closer for Akers and then taken a shot if there was time left. Unfortunately, I thought we didn’t have as much time as we needed because on the drive, VD caught a pass near the sidelines and instead of running OB, he turned inside and got an extra yard. That cost a lot of time and was a bad play. I’m all for players trying to get more yards, but the situation called for him to run out of bounds. Of course, we could have used a timeout. I believe we had 2 left.

That’s 13 points, We lost by 10. Do the math.

The other things that contributed to our loss were:

3rd down – the Ravens converted on 3rd down on their TD drive and a few other times. That was a huge difference in the game. Our defense couldn’t get off the field and was worn down.

Game Plan – I blame the short week, but I believe our game plan should have matched what the Ravens did against us – run the ball and short, quick passes. That would have provided more time to pass and kept Alex from getting stomped. We did use short passes a few times and was mostly successful. I don’t know why we didn’t do more of that.

Bottom Line- The Ravens were fired up. That’s their MO. They get up for the big games and lose trap games. We’re more consistent. If we had normal prep time and played them on a neutral field we could get more going on offense and beat them. There’s no shame in losing that game, but it was winnable if only a couple things went differently.

5 east coast match ups with this one coming within 4 days from their last game. Oh and by the way, we have another scheduling doozie where we play the Steelers MNF then turn around and play the Seachickens on the following Saturday.

Thank you Roger Goodell and the NFL for scheduling the worst schedule in history

I have an idea for an excuse why we lost:

The Ravens are a much better team

or maybe it’s the fact that Chuck Norris is a Ravens fan, could have had our guys mentally psyched out.

That and they got ZERO pressure on Joe Flacco.

In 8 games, precisely,
The planets will align, ever so nicely.
The time to act will be at hand!
Unleash the offense, that monstrous band!
Then the once proud AFC Champs will finally fall,
And you, 49ers, will rule all!

A word of caution to this tale: if you become a bunch of cowards, you will fail.

I don’t remember seeing any. Wouldn’t that help against the blitzes? (even though they still beat us even when they didn’t blitz). Also surprised we didn’t run more; especially when it became obvious our pass-blocking wasn’t gettin any better.